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Translated Texts for Historians, Contexts
The Acts of the Second Council of Nicaea (787)
Two Volume Set
The Second Council of Nicaea (787) decreed that religious images were to set up in churches and venerated. It thereby established the cult of icons as a central element in the piety of the Orthodox churches, as it has remained ever since. In the West its decrees received a new emphasis in the Counter-Reformation, in the defence of the role of art in religion. It is a text of prime importance for the iconoclast controversy of eighth-century Byzantium, one of the most explored and contested topics in Byzantine history. But it has also a more general significance - in the history of culture and the history of art. This edition offers the first translation that is based on the new critical edition of this text in the Acta Conciliorum Oecumenicorum series, and the first full commentary of this work that has ever been written. It will be of interest to a wide range of readers from a variety of disciplines.
The Second Council of Nicaea (787) decreed that religious images were to set up in churches and venerated. It thereby established the cult of icons as a central element in the piety of the Orthodox churches, as it has remained ever since. In the West its decrees received a new emphasis in the Counter-Reformation, in the defence of the role of art in religion. It is a text of prime importance for the iconoclast controversy of eighth-century Byzantium, one of the most explored and contested topics in Byzantine history. But it has also a more general significance - in the history of culture and the history of art. This edition offers the first translation that is based on the new critical edition of this text in the Acta Conciliorum Oecumenicorum series, and the first full commentary of this work that has ever been written. It will be of interest to a wide range of readers from a variety of disciplines.
796 pages, Hardcover
Published July 13, 2018
About the author
Richard Price
11 books8 followersRichard Price is Professor of the History of Christianity at the University of London.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 26, 2026
Quite helpful.
May 31, 2026
Another excellent Price translation. Having these in English is a major service to the field, as I'd never slog through 500pp of the original, and the explanatory notes and introductory essays are excellent.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews